BY ANDY GARDNER
North Country This Week

CANTON -- St. Lawrence County’s health board president says there is a sufficient supply of mechanical ventilators among the county’s hospitals and there are surge plans in place as they prepare for an influx of coronavirus patients.

Dr. Andrew Williams made the comments during the Monday, April 6 St. Lawrence County legislature meeting held online via the Zoom platform.

He said there are now 30 ventilators available.

“My hope is that the community embraces the public health measures put in place by our Department of Health, local government and the state so that we don’t overwhelm our healthcare system,” the doctor said in an April 8 email.

St. Lawrence County has seen drastically increasing numbers of COVID-19 infections. The first case was reported March 25. As of Wednesday, April 8, there have been 78 confirmed COVID-19 patients in the county, with four people hospitalized.

“From the perspective of the local hospital system, we’ve been creating surge plans,” Dr. Williams said at the April 6 meeting. “We all have staffing plans to deal with the significant changes and significant potential burden on the healthcare system.”

He said the increase in local infections can be slowed, if people stay home and avoid unnecessary travel.

“We’ve been working very closely between public health and the local hospital and healthcare community to come up with a strategy to mitigate the spread,” he said. “We’re asking people to socially distance and avoid unnecessary travel.”

He said even people who don’t think they have the virus pose a risk to others.

“There’s a real concern that there are asymptomatic who are able to spread the illness,” he said. “They become superspreaders. They have no symptoms but are able to spread the illness to multiple people. That’s where the social distancing and no non-essential travel comes in.”

He said the local healthcare community has been trying to do their part in helping people stay home.

“The medical community has made a transition to telemedicine,” Dr. Williams said.

Dr. Williams is also St. Lawrence Health System’s associate chief medical officer and Community Health Center of the North Country’s chief medical officer.

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